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Audio Transcription

A Network Affiliates Roundtable discussion

Digital Success and Conversion Points

Todd: A lot of our clients, quite frankly, still have websites that are not representative of their firm – and that’s a big hole in the bucket right there. Before they may even call, it’s a matter of the people who aren’t calling that see it and aren’t impressed.

Tammy: That’s a good point.

Emily: I think for so long we treated it as a billboard or as a brochure. Your website was kind of like this brochure. And now it’s supposed to be your 24 hour sales person, so the technology needs to be there, the functionality, how people go through your site is hugely important. We want instantaneous results, and if someone goes to your website and they don’t find it within 30 seconds, they’re gone – and you’ve lost that opportunity. So, it really is important to get your website where it needs to be, to match the beautiful creative we have on the broadcast side.

Todd: I think one way that we can start to convey that, objectively, is to show them – on a monthly basis, just through Google Analytics – how many people are actually visiting that site.

Tammy: And it goes back to, I was reading this consumption report about dual screens. That, you know, people watch TV and they’re on their iPads, or tablets, or whatever it is. Or their phones, and they’re getting served up all kind of information about products and services. And then they’re immediately on the website checking these things out. I mean, for whatever reason, it’s so infrequently that people just consume from one screen. And I think that those who don’t address it, and make sure they have their digital properties fully functional, and as big and bold and beautiful and with the story telling elements, and the relevant information, and content, content, content – which we talk about all the time.

I mean, it’s just an extension of what the television is – it’s just content on steroids is what digital is. It’s content on steroids, and if you don’t have those two things playing together then I think they might be on the downhill side of the curve for legal advertising. But if they embrace it, and engage in it – and let us help them – I think because not all of their competitors are doing it because they’re all in the same boat about not knowing what to do.

Norty: I think another area that impresses me in many different ways is, I never really felt that the cell phone would be people’s main point of contact and outward communication. I never thought they’d be viewing videos on there, I even thought texting – who wants to sit there and do this, it takes too long. I mean, all of these things, through this phone. To me, I always thought a phone was a phone. And boy, that is nothing, it is now a computer. It is now their personal computer, and they’ve kind of done away with a lot of those other things. So I think to me, that has been one advancement, or change, in the way consumers consume that I think has just been very dynamic.

Emily: You bring up a good point, because with that comes the fact that, when people are looking for you, they’re using their cell phones. Which means that your website needs to be responsive. It needs to have the capability to calibrate screen size, depending on where they’re consuming from. Because again, it’s all about being where that consumer wants to consume with you. And if that’s the cell phone, then you better have that website that is easy to navigate through on a cell phone.

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Norty: Not all people fill out forms. They will contact the firm in any number of different ways. And sometimes that, although that is one measure of success, there are many measures of success with that. And I think we need to be careful to educate our clients about how consumers choose to communicate and how they choose to reach out to you.

I think they may say, “well geez, I only had one form filled out last month. This isn’t working.” Well as we all know, the traffic that goes there drives decisions. It’s really affirmation to the consumer that I’m making the right decision before I pick up that phone to call, or reach out in an email or a form.

Todd: It’s still a very valuable impression when you compare impressions on your website, versus let’s say like TV. TV there’s 30 seconds. Someone comes to your website; maybe they spend a couple of minutes. That’s four times what you get in TV. So there’s a lot of engagement in there that’s valuable.

Norty: And they also consume the content that they want to consume, not what I choose to push out to them. Because, maybe in my spot I choose to say certain things and that might not be of interest to them. So I think, that’s a good point, that they are consuming things that are important to them. And I think it’s incumbent on us to evolve and modify the sites based upon what is of interest and what consumers to truly look for when they go to a website.

[Audio Break]

Norty: You know I think, really, when you look at the unique users per month that go to the site. These are sites that are not recreationally based, I mean, people are going there because they have an existing need or a true interest in what’s going on. So, I think as you look at that number alone that is certainly a very important number. Ideally we’d love to put a track-line on the website. To where, if they call from the website into that, we can definitively say “hey look, these phone calls are coming from the website.”

Although, certain clients choose not to do that, but I think that is another method at which you can be very measurable and accountable and understanding exactly the value that the website brings in terms of lead generation.